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Edmunds' Expert Review

The long-awaited 2008 Tesla Roadster is the first car to prove that electric power and high performance need not be mutually exclusive.

vehicle overview

With rising gas prices and the inevitable dwindling of global oil supplies, automotive enthusiasts have understandably begun to worry about what the future may hold. Many fear that the current under-hood "arms race" between high-powered performance cars is one last gas-guzzling hurrah before horsepower ratings plummet and acceleration times balloon. Happily, the 2008 Tesla Roadster demonstrates that there's life after oil for sporting cars. Simple yet complex at the same time, the Roadster delivers world-class acceleration in the drama-free fashion of a golf cart, as well as the sharp handling one would expect from its Lotus-engineered chassis.

Officially unveiled as a concept car in July 2006, the Tesla Roadster hit some bumps in the road en route to production. The car's launch date was repeatedly pushed back by this tiny San Carlos, California, company, raising concerns among buyers who had plunked down deposits to reserve their Roadsters. Fortunately, the final version of the Roadster has turned out to be the real deal. For an admittedly steep price (nearly $100,000 to start) owners are treated to the Tesla's singular combination of supercar speed and sailboat sound levels -- not to mention a distinct sense of superiority every time they drive past a filling station.

All-electric cars have been around since the dawn of the automobile, but compared to gas-powered cars, they have suffered greatly in terms of range and performance. The key to the Tesla Roadster is its advanced battery pack. Featuring lithium-ion composition (something no hybrid vehicle has yet), the massive battery pack incorporates liquid cooling, safety fuses and sophisticated programming to promote safe and reliable operation. It allows a range of more than 200 miles and acceleration performance that's equal to the world's best sports cars.

If the Tesla Roadster looks oddly familiar, that's because it's essentially a restyled Lotus Elise. However, numerous under-skin differences set the Tesla apart. Thanks to the positioning of its electric motor and battery pack, the Roadster's weight distribution is even more rear-biased than the Elise -- 35 percent front/65 percent rear, compared with 39/61 for the Lotus. Almost all of the Roadster's components are specialized; essentially, only the windshield, mirrors, dashboard, some front suspension pieces and the removable soft top are shared with the Elise.

All that high-tech hardware does add some heft -- the Roadster's 2,690-pound curb weight is almost 800 pounds more than the Elise's. The electric motor provides 248 horsepower, however, which is more than any Elise. Perhaps most impressive is the Roadster's torque delivery -- its peak output of more than 200 pound-feet is on tap as soon as you nail the "electricity pedal" from a stop. With its one-speed transmission and stratospheric 13,500-rpm redline, the Tesla Roadster offers forward-thinking enthusiasts a whole new way to make haste.

There's also an environmental benefit. The Roadster produces no emissions on its own, though electricity produced by coal- or natural-gas-fired power plants does have associated emissions. Because of the Roadster's highly efficient nature, however, Tesla claims the Roadster's associated carbon dioxide emissions would only be about a third of those for a popular hybrid car.

Naturally, this ground-breaking model is not without its weaknesses. Foremost among them is its lofty price, which limits access to only the most deep-pocketed consumers. Then there is the Roadster's limited range -- even when driven gently, the EPA estimates that the Tesla will only be good for about 220 miles between charges, although this is admirable for an electric vehicle. Finally, there are some inherent issues with the car's Lotus-derived design, including manual steering and awkward entry and exit. Nonetheless, the 2008 Tesla Roadster has earned its place in automotive history as the first genuinely high-performance electric car. Hopefully, a "trickle-down effect" will eventually make this winning combination available to a wider range of enthusiasts.

trim levels & features

The 2008 Tesla Roadster is a two-seat roadster with a targa-style removable soft top. Only one trim level is available. Standard features include 16-inch front and 17-inch rear alloy wheels, full power accessories, air-conditioning, cruise control, heated sport seats with adjustable lumbar support, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, leather upholstery and a CD stereo with auxiliary audio jack. The Roadster's options list includes a choice of upgraded leather or synthetic microfiber upholstery, Bluetooth, a seven-speaker premium stereo, a navigation system and a mobile battery-charging system.

2008 Highlights

performance & mpg

The Tesla Roadster is equipped with a three-phase, four-pole electric motor that generates 248 hp and 211 lb-ft of torque. Initially, the Roadster's motor will be mated to a two-speed electric-shift manual transmission; however, due to this transmission's inability to handle the motor's prodigious low-end torque, 1st gear will be locked out. Later in the year, Tesla will introduce what it calls "Powertrain 1.5," which includes a new one-speed transmission. Tesla will retrofit the Powertrain 1.5 upgrades free of charge for owners of the initial two-speed models.

Forced to take off in 2nd gear, two-speed Roadsters can still dash from zero to 60 in just 5.7 seconds; however, this is considerably slower than the company's target of around 4.0 seconds. Tesla claims that Powertrain 1.5 will enable the Roadster to reach 60 from rest in a supercar-like 3.9 seconds.

safety

Standard safety features on the 2008 Tesla Roadster include antilock brakes and traction control. Notably, side airbags are unavailable.

driving

Manual steering is never fun at parking-lot speeds, but it's usually a treat around corners -- and the Roadster's unpowered rack is no exception. Despite the 2008 Tesla Roadster's slightly softened suspension settings, this is one of the best-handling (and stiffest-riding) cars on the market. The real story, though, is the eerily muted thrust from the electric motor. Tire noise is more audible than the subdued whine from the engine room, yet the Roadster's acceleration is breathtaking, especially from a standing start with all that torque on tap. It's fast, but the very opposite of furious.

interior

The interior of the Roadster is almost identical to that of the Elise save for some unique materials, a modified transmission tunnel that hosts the Roadster's exclusive shifter and an information readout displaying battery charge and estimated cruising range. The steering wheel is tiny, as are the gauges and the sliver-like sun visors. Seats are supportive but confining, and the footwells are extraordinarily narrow, though at least there's no clutch to worry about. Think really, really nice go-kart and you'll get the idea.

Top consumer reviews

Read what other owners think about the 2008 Tesla Roadster.

I ordered this car two years before delivery. There were plenty of snafus, but the final result is stunning. Incredible acceleration. Not much impulse to go excessively fast if you can make a 911-owning passenger white-knuckled going from 0 to 45. It's so effortless. Learned to drive without much braking - regenerative throttle behavior makes rotor wear obsolete. Driving: very low stance, and doesn't like rough roads. Ownership: the company works hard to make its owners happy, but living far from a company-owned store is tough. Early bugs and glitches were immediately fixed, even if Tesla had to fly a technician out to the car.

More About This Model

He was tall, looked fit in his spandex bicycling gear and — the reason we were a bit nervous — he was glaring at the little silver roadster with distaste.

Had we inadvertently forced him off the road on one of our passes while photographing the electric-powered 2008 Tesla Roadster?

No. His problem, it turns out, is that the car is "too quiet."

The Tesla, clean and silent but for the hiss of tires on asphalt and the whine of the electric motor's cooling fan, disturbed him because he didn't hear it coming as we scooted by him on a twisty section of Skyline Boulevard in the mountains above Tesla's headquarters in San Carlos, California.

Yin and Yang"Mostly, we get a lot of support," says Aaron Platshon, the Tesla Roadster's marketing manager, shaking his head in bemusement as the grump pedaled away. "But sometimes you just can't please people."

It's like that these days at Tesla, the five-year-old car company that's under the microscope as it prepares to roll out the first production models of the 2008 Tesla Roadster.

Tesla managed to develop a high-performance, battery-powered electric car when many had pronounced the battery-electric vehicle an unworkable bit of wishful thinking. Super, everybody says.

But then it postponed the production launch twice because transmissions were breaking, and fired co-founder Martin Eberhard and a score of top engineers. Doom, everybody says.

It's raised $105 million from private backers and venture capitalists — with another $40 million about to roll in. All well and good.

But it spent $43 million in its first four years. Disaster looms!

Heavy LoadNow Tesla has parceled out test-drives in several of its preproduction prototypes to a select handful of auto journalists. So what happens?

Now the reviews are just as concerned with the corporate enterprise as with the car, and they dwell on financing and the future, along with torque and traction.

Sometimes you just can't please people.

The reason is pretty simple, though. As Tesla approaches the official delivery of its first production car on March 17, the company carries with it the hopes and dreams of those who believe there is a future for battery-powered electric vehicles. And just as there is desire for its success, there's even greater fear of a failure that would drain the EV movement of the energy that's been built up around Tesla and its roadster.

Good thing electric cars have lots of torque, because Tesla's got a big load to carry.

No Vaporware HereThe vehicle Tesla is starting with is not a family car. With a price tag starting at $98,950 and an EPA-rated range of 220 miles (more like 180 miles if you like to goose it every once in awhile and down around 150 if you regard speed limit signs as mere suggestions), the 2008 Tesla Roadster makes most sense as a second, third or fourth (or fifth) car for weekends and the occasional short commute.

Tesla executives like to talk about the Roadster as the electric replacement for the Porsche 911s that belong to its wealthy clients. We think it will more likely be an addition to collections that already hold a Porsche 911, an exciting and unique addition to a list that includes Ferraris and Cobras and others of the fast and furious and/or expensive and exotic persuasion.

Doubters can doubt and scoffers scoff, but we ran Prototype 20, the silver one, up and down the coastal mountains, through tight esses and hairpins and up steeply climbing straightaways with the accelerator pedal pinned to the floor.

When we climbed out of the snug cabin after five hours, we were persuaded; Tesla's got a real car.

Silent RunningThe Roadster starts like any other; you just turn the key. There's a faint click, and a panel of warning lights blinks on and off as you sit there, waiting to feel the vibe from the idling engine. Then you realize there isn't going to be any vibration, and that the silence means the electric motor is patiently waiting for instructions.

There's a gear selector in the narrow, carbon-fiber center console, but these early Roadsters have 1st gear locked out, a temporary fix for this soon-to-be discarded two-speed transmission's inability to handle the Tesla's prodigious bottom-end torque. "Just put it in 2nd," says Platshon, the assigned co-pilot for our initial drive.

Depress the accelerator pedal and there's a slight whine as the motor starts spinning, then the tires grab and you're rolling in an eerie rush of wind and the whine of the electric motor. The unassisted steering is heavy at low speeds, but the effort lightens up appreciably as the pace picks up.

On the highway, the Roadster starts earning its keep. There's no aural cue from behind you as you push the pedal toward the floor, but wind rush, tire hum and electric whine increase and the mounting G-forces push you firmly back into the leather-covered bucket seat as the Tesla takes off.

CluelessIt's then that one drawback of electric power hits home. With no gears to change and no internal-combustion engine to provide clues as to the speed you're carrying, it is easy to plunge into Deadman's Curve moving (as the song says) way too fast.

Fortunately, the Roadster's chassis, suspension and steering work with the Yokohama tires (175/55R16s up front and 225/45R17s in back) to deliver the handling of a real sports car. In fact, the Tesla Roadster is a real sports car, a derivative of the Lotus Elise with a longer wheelbase, lower chassis sills, softer suspension and unique bodywork.

With 248 horsepower and between 205 pound-feet and 211 lb-ft of torque available from zero rpm to 6,000 rpm, this 2,690-pound roadster accelerates steadily and even quickly as we drive up the steep roads that wind through the redwood trees. Put foot to floor and the Tesla goes and goes and goes (no gears to shift, remember) until the electronics shut down your progress at arount 125 mph - a little north of that when the new powertrain comes out -- or the battery pack runs out of juice.

Our test car was outfitted with the jury-rigged tranny Tesla is using so it can get cars into production pending the introduction of a new single-speed transmission and reconfigured motor — a system the company is calling powertrain 1.5.

With the taller 2nd gear our only option, we didn't get the 3.8-second 0-60-mph acceleration that some people have reported, or the 4.4 seconds that Tesla's own testers have recorded. But with a full charge early in the day, the pace felt close to the 5.7 seconds the company says the initial one-speed production models will achieve.

No Energizer BunnyWe drove the Tesla Roadster hard all morning, and by the time we got back to flat ground for our official instrumented acceleration run, we had only about an eighth of a charge and nine miles of range left in the battery pack. At this point, the Tesla's electronics are programmed to kick into a torque-limiting, energy-saving mode when the batteries have been drained significantly.

Fortunately we were able to add a bit of juice with an hour's stopover in Tesla's shop, hooked up to the 70-amp, 240-volt home-charger unit that comes with each car (installation extra). But we still had only 23 miles on the range meter and a severe case of torque restriction when we headed out to the lightly traveled highway that serves as Tesla's unofficial test track for acceleration runs.

Add damp street surfaces and a slight uphill grade and the best 0-60 we were able to record was 6.0 seconds. We learned again that the quickest your electric sports car will be is in the first few minutes after you leave the garage. It just gets slower after that until you return home again.

It's the ElectronsWhat makes it all work is an amazing agglomeration of onboard computers, clever and sophisticated power management programming, a battery pack and a proprietary electric motor and transaxle.

The magic lies in the battery pack. There are 6,831 lithium-ion batteries, each about a third bigger than the AA cells you use in your digital camera. They're linked together in a unique package that incorporates liquid cooling, safety fuses and fancy power control programming to eliminate worries about what battery engineers like to call "thermal events." The batteries feed 410 volts to the Roadster's air-cooled AC induction motor, which redlines at 13,000 rpm.

Tesla won't release details of power plant 1.5, which it expects to begin installing later this year at the Lotus factory in England where the cars are built. It will retrofit the first-generation cars with the interim transmission at no cost to the owners.

In any case, Tesla insists that the 1.5 package will enable the one-speed car to meet the Roadster's original performance target of 0-60-mph acceleration in 4.0 seconds.

We asked one of our own engineers to do a little number-crunching based on the few facts Tesla would supply, and we estimate that the new system will be rated at somewhere around 320 hp and 275 lb-ft of torque — a not-insubstantial boost of 30 percent.

Moving ForwardWhere Tesla goes from here is up to the market, and the company's ability to successfully transition from entrepreneurial startup to efficient, profit-making car manufacturer.

There are tons of hurdles, including the likelihood of increased competition from other, bigger companies — such as General Motors and its Chevrolet Volt — that have seen in the 2008 Tesla Roadster both proof of concept and a potential rival in a new market segment for battery-electric cars.

Tesla itself has been remarkably candid about the whole process, posting all kinds of information on its Web site (although this hasn't prevented it from making clumsy decisions nevertheless). On the drawing board is a plan for a Tesla sedan, priced at around $50,000, that is supposed to broaden the company's appeal. And insiders also talk about an even more affordable compact, an electric city car for the commuter crowd.

So far, Tesla has presold about 900 examples of the Tesla Roadster, 600 of the 2008 model and 300 of the 2009 models. The company says it has plans to build and sell a total of 1,600 of the 2009 models before starting on anything else. The company also is contemplating going public, a rite of passage that lets the initial investors cash out and can make it easier to raise operating capital.

The big telltale, though, will be whether Tesla can maintain and increase enthusiasm for the Tesla Roadster. We'll see if Tesla has sold the first 900, or the only 900.

The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.

Used 2008 Tesla Roadster Overview

The Used 2008 Tesla Roadster is offered in the following submodels: . Available styles include , and 2dr Convertible (electric DD).

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